The Call to Action

Avraham is called the Hebrew, meaning stranger. He is counter-cultural.

In his resistance to social trends and public opinion, he earns the blessing of being a father of multitudes.

וַיּוֹצֵאאֹתוֹהַחוּצָה, וַיֹּאמֶרהַבֶּט–נָאהַשָּׁמַיְמָהוּסְפֹרהַכּוֹכָבִים—אִם–תּוּכַל, לִסְפֹּראֹתָם; וַיֹּאמֶרלוֹ, כֹּהיִהְיֶהזַרְעֶךָ – And He brought him forth abroad, and said: ‘Look now toward heaven, and count the stars, if thou be able to count them’; and He said unto him: ‘So shall thy seed be.’

In his being different, God congruently treats him as of a different fate and can take him beyond the natural course of history – וַיּוֹצֵאאֹתוֹהַחוּצָה.

What made Avraham different was that his belief in one God was that he expressed that belief by dedicating his life to kindness, justice, and education. On this basis, something remarkably unusual happens, and God has a soliloquy, where the Torah narrates God’s thoughts:

וַהאָמָר: הַמְכַסֶּהאֲנִימֵאַבְרָהָם, אֲשֶׁראֲנִיעֹשֶׂה. וְאַבְרָהָם—הָיוֹיִהְיֶהלְגוֹיגָּדוֹל, וְעָצוּם; וְנִבְרְכוּ–בוֹ—כֹּל, גּוֹיֵיהָאָרֶץ. כִּייְדַעְתִּיו, לְמַעַןאֲשֶׁריְצַוֶּהאֶת–בָּנָיווְאֶת–בֵּיתוֹאַחֲרָיו, וְשָׁמְרוּדֶּרֶךְה, לַעֲשׂוֹתצְדָקָהוּמִשְׁפָּט—לְמַעַן, הָבִיאהעַל–אַבְרָהָם, אֵתאֲשֶׁר–דִּבֶּר, עָלָיו –Hashem said to Himself: “Shall I hide from Avraham what I am about to do? Avraham will become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed through him. I know him; he will command his children and his house after him, that they may observe the way of Hashem, to do what is right and just; so that Hashem will bring upon Avraham that which He spoke of him.” (18:17-19)

This remarkable incident takes place because God must tell Avraham; the implication is that if God did not tell Avraham, Avraham would wake up in the morning, and find two cities blown off the horizon, and, believing that innocent citizens of Sodom were swept away with the guilty, he would no longer able to teach that Hashem is just, which is how he challenges God:

חָלִלָהלְּךָמֵעֲשֹׂתכַּדָּבָרהַזֶּה, לְהָמִיתצַדִּיקעִם–רָשָׁע, וְהָיָהכַצַּדִּיק, כָּרָשָׁע; חָלִלָהלָּךְ—הֲשֹׁפֵטכָּל–הָאָרֶץ, לֹאיַעֲשֶׂהמִשְׁפָּט. – “It profanes You to do such a thing – to slay the righteous with the wicked so that the righteous should exactly be the same as the wicked – that profanes You! Will the Judge of all the earth not act justly?” (18:25)

Hashem accepts Avraham’s premise that is unjust to punish collectively and destroy a whole group indiscriminately. Once God has shown Avraham that his principle is correct, Avraham negotiates how many innocents are worth saving:

וַיֹּאמֶראַל–נָאיִחַרלַאדֹנָי, וַאֲדַבְּרָהאַךְ–הַפַּעַם—אוּלַייִמָּצְאוּןשָׁם, עֲשָׂרָה; וַיֹּאמֶרלֹאאַשְׁחִית, בַּעֲבוּרהָעֲשָׂרָה. – And he said: “Please, don’t be angry Hashem, and I will speak just once more. Perhaps we ten innocents can be found there?.” And Hashem said: “I will not destroy the city for the ten’s sake.” (18:32)

Of course, God destroys the city anyway, as God was going to, knowing that there were no innocents to save, aside from Lot and his family.

This highly unusual dialogue is for the stated reason that Avraham is going to teach his descendants about justice and integrity – לְמַעַןאֲשֶׁריְצַוֶּהאֶת–בָּנָיווְאֶת–בֵּיתוֹאַחֲרָיו, וְשָׁמְרוּדֶּרֶךְה, לַעֲשׂוֹתצְדָקָהוּמִשְׁפָּט.

Unlike Noah, who accepts God’s condemnation of his world, Avraham establishes a precedent followed by Moshe, Jonah, and many others of brazenness towards Heaven, for Heaven’s sake – חוצפהכלפישמיא.

R’ Jonathan Sacks explains that there is no answer to the question of injustice in the world, except that asking the question might cause us to live the response through our actions.

Avraham was loyal to God and committed to justice, but in this conversation, his loyalties were at odds. The test is that God would appear unjust to see whether Avraham swayed towards justice or to God. By appearing to lose the staged argument, God demonstrates a commitment to justice, which paradoxically validates Avraham’s loyalty to God. Thus, the story of Abraham testing God’s commitment to justice turns out to simultaneously be a story of God testing Abraham’s commitment to justice.

But he cannot teach what he does not yet know! R’ Shlomo Farhi teaches that God orchestrates the whole conversation simply so that Avraham and his descendants – we the readers – can learn that there is nothing sacred about accepting suffering or wrongdoing.

It is up to us as the bearers of Avraham’s legacy to stand up for what is right. Do not turn the other cheek when there is something that can be done to make it right.